The Great (North) American Road Trip: Uff Da, Minnesota, Don't Ya Know?

Northern Minnesota

The Minnesota visitor's center coming in from Fargo, North Dakota is really easy to miss. So easy, in fact, that we had to turn around once and almost missed it the second time we drove by it. Jen and I both had to use the bathroom and information on a new state is always a good thing, so it was a match made in heaven. The older lady that worked at the information desk couldn't have been any nicer to us. She was also very informative as she gave us a couple of maps and booklets on things to do while we were in the state. She also gave us a nice campground list, but it was not entirely needed because we already had a place to stay.

The campsite we had booked was on our friends Dana and Adam's property of their cabin that they were fixing up. The entire cabin was in the midst of renovation as it was completely gutted. The bathroom was pretty much complete when they bought it, but the rest of the cabin, from what they told us, was in complete dissaray.

Adam and Dana had completed the front porch before we had arrived. Since this was the only completed room, it dually served as their bedroom. The kitchen was functional, but was also in use for storage. They were worried that we would be put off by the mess and annoyed that we had to camp, but we were just happy to hang out with them and crash for free for a couple of nights.

The best part about Minnesota was that Adam had just bought himself a nice new Lund fishing boat. When someone buys a new boat, they want to take out on the water every chance they get, and Adam was no exception. The boat was awesome. It easily and safely sat six people as well as had a nice new four stroke engine that could easily get up to a cruising speed of thirty five miles per hour. We took the boat out every day we were visiting, and it was great.

Dana's family has owned a lakeside resort, Kitchi Landing, for the longest time and a few years ago her sister and husband bought the resort from their parents. The two of them run the lodging together and take turns playing bartender throughout the summer. The area is a big vacation spot, where families come year after year to visit. This made visiting really fun. We were treated like extended family, especially since Jen was the photographer at Dana and Adam's wedding.

Kitchi Landing is part of a community of about five or six similar resorts that are all on the same lake and river system. Cass Lake is the biggest lake in the area and it links via rivers to about seven lakes, including Kitchi Lake. We were told that Jacques Cousteu did some exploring in the area and that he decided that Cass Lake was where the Mississippi River originated from.

Once a month all five of the resorts host a game called the poker run. It consists of going to every lakeside resort's bar in the little community and when you order a drink, any drink like beer, soda, and water for example, you get an envelope that you sign your name on. In the envelopes is a folded playing card, of which you can't see what it is. After visiting four of the five resorts everyone meets at a specific resort to see who has the best hand. Since they do this about once a month all five bars get to be the fifth bar that everyone meets at.

The four of us (Jen, Dana, Adam, and myself), took the boat out to compete in the poker run. It was fun and convenient to take the boat, because all of the resorts were lakeside and had their own dock. We also brought along one of Dana's friends from growing up in the area, Todd. So we hopped around and met a bunch of the people that Dana grew up with and then got back in the boat and did all again at the next stop. This continued until we arrived at Lost Acres resort, which was holding the final card for everyone.

There was easily a good sixty to seventy people partaking in the poker run, so chances of winning were not all that great. Having the best hand would win you somewhere in the neighborhood of three hundred bucks, with cash and gift prizes for other good hands and such. The organizers started to call up people to turn in their cards and a line formed. We all got on line and waited for our turn. We arrived after about twenty or so people had gone already and the winning hand was a pair of queens. Adam was the first of us to go and he busted out a pair of kings to take the lead, which then was followed on his last card with a third king. Three Kings was going to be tough to beat in a competition of this sort, so, Adam was in good shape. The rest of us turned in our envelopes and came up with pretty much nothing. We were told to hold onto our cards for later when they gave away consolation prizes. We then walked over to the arcade games that were in the same room as the poker run. The game 1944 was giving out free plays, which was awesome, especially since it is such a damn good game.

While we were playing arcade games Adam was still in the lead in the poker run. There was only a handful of people left and things were looking good. With about ten or fifteen people left, an old lady named Jo came up to the table. Her first four cards came out to show two pair, and luck would have it that her fifth card made her a full house, pushing Adam to the curb. She would go on to win the whole thing, and Adam was left holding down second place.

The rest of the prizes were dished out as they randomly grabbed a card from a new deck, and if you had that card you would get to come to the table. All people at the table would then get to grab a random card from a pool of cards, much like Go Fish, and whoever had the high card would win the prizes that were announced. All of us would eventually get a chance to play this game, but only Adam came away winning. I should have won by pulling the queen of hearts, but the lady right after me nabbed an ace, robbing me of twenty bucks and some hats and stuff. Despite not winning we had a good time playing and jetting around on the boat.

Following the shennanigens at Kitchi Landing, post poker run, we headed back to the cabin with Dana's relative Ramona. The five of us were fairly hungry so we cooked up some frozen pizzas. Ramona was an interesting lady. We came to find out she used to be in the military and got into being an official military photographer. She took the official first photograph of President Clinton as he came out of the limo on Inauguration Day. She is now some sort of Beurocrat working in D.C. and is so high profile that she has Dick Cheney, among others, phone numbers in her cell phone. I told her to invite him to go hunting for the weekend. She had a bunch of cool stories, but after the long day we had, it was time to turn in, plus she had a flight to catch in the morning.

The next day, we took the boat out again and Dana's 9 year old niece came along for the ride. As we got out onto the lake, Dana decided to take us to see the eagle nests that were around. Finding this out was exciting, but also a bummer at the same time, because I did not have my camera with the zoom lens with us. Even though we got to see a couple of eagles and their nests, we did not get any good pictures of them. It was still really cool to see them though. We had hoped to find a beaver, since I have yet to see one in the wild, but we came up short.

After cruising around the lakes for a bit, we stopped off in one of the resorts called The Pike Hole, to grab a small bite to eat. As we were eating, grey clouds started to move in and a light rain chipped away at the windows. We also overheard a guy talk about catching a 54" muskie fish and we were very intrigued. The rain passed and we went outside to check out this massive fish as the guy still had it in his live tank on the boat. The fish was massive. The live tank on his boat went clear across his boat from one side to the other, and this thing covered the whole tank. Its head alone was easily as big, if not bigger, than my own. After being in awe of the fish this guy caught, we all moved back inside to finish up eating.

The clouds started rolling in again and Adam decided it was time to move. We raced to the boat in an effort to make it past the rain. As we cut across the lake, nature had other things planned. The rain started pouring down. After it started pouring, it started dropping buckets as we were left almost in the middle of the lake. Dana told Adam to take shelter and we saw Dana's uncle's house and made a B-line for it. We docked and ran for cover. As we got to the door, we were soaked from head to toe, with exception to Dana, who had a weird opposite of peeing your pants look, from crouching forward and blocking rain from hitting that area.

The house we were in was amazing. It was a nice little lodge/cabin type of house. It was very ornate as the beam in the middle had antlers on it to be used as a coat rack. It was completely decked out in outdoorsy types of decorations. The bathroom alone was a spectacle. It was so damn huge, I could have lived in there. It had a sweet four pedastal tub and a handle and locking system that was made of deer antlers and a crazy locking mechanism. The handle was hinged closed by a sliver of wood that acted like a spring to close the door from the inside. The outside had a string that looped under the antler handle that would pull the wood and release the pressure allowing the door to open. It was one of the coolest door handles and hardware systems I have ever seen. It was all hand made and the craftsmanship was something to be in awe of. The rest of the house was in renovation mode, as they had knocked out the wall that blocked in the front porch to open it up to the living room. This made a crazy open layout that really works well for the style of house. Overall, I think this could have easily been my dream cabin in the woods.

Brownies were on the counter taunting me, and when they were offered up, I had no hesitation to eat some. They were delicious. We waited around for a good forty five minutes talking about random things, and then it was decided that the rain wasn't going to let up any time soon. This prompted us to borrow Dana's Aunt's car with the purpose of bringing it back at a later time, so Adam could pick up the boat. We all ran through the rain and drove back to Kitchi Landing to wait out the storm and hang out for a bit.

Kitchi Landing has a sweet deal that whenever someone rings the big bell that hangs near the bar, that person has to buy a round for evryone in the bar. During the poker run people were ringing the bell like crazy. Since I don't drink, Jen made out like a bandit as she recieved all of my drink tokens as well. Over the course of our stay she had about ten or so drink tokens and drank for free the entire time. As she was cashing in some of her tokens, we realized that we had left the tent windows open.

When we got back to the house we went to check on the tent. Luckily, we set the tent up under a tree which had blocked most of the rain from getting in. There were certain areas that were effected though. Jen's sleeping bag got a little damp in one area and there was a little puddle here and there. For the amount of rain that hit the area, I think we got pretty lucky that we didn't end up worse off.

Minnesota was a great place to visit. We can both see ourselves going back to hang out and having a great time doing so. Dana, Adam, and the rest of their family were so nice and fun to be around, that it would be a shame if we don't make it back. Next time, Dana swears that we will have a bed to sleep in and not have to camp in the front yard. Either way is good by us, just as long as they take us out on the boat.